Use of Weapons
- 400
- Pages
- about 7 h
- Reading time
- Kurd Lasswitz Award for Best Foreign Work
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Our view
“Use of Weapons” is a dark character study of one soldier, built from alternating narrative strands that only make full sense at the end. Some readers find that the middle drags and the structure frustrates, but the second half tightens and the final pages are devastating. It suits those who like to work for their answers, and probably to read the book twice.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Use of Weapons is a science fiction novel by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks, first published in 1990. It is the third novel in the Culture series.
Reading order · Culture series
Full order & progress →
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.0 across 518 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 78% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Science fiction average of 7.8. That is how 8.0 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.9 | 61 | 12% |
| Hardcover | 8.1 | 457 | 88% |
Frequently asked
How long is Use of Weapons?
It has 400 pages — shorter than 61% of the ranked books in Science fiction.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
The same shelf — Science fiction — and a score of 8.0, the closest to this book.
